Baby Born Pregnant with Her Own Siblings

[Jimspace]

http://news.discovery.com/human/health/baby-born-pregnant-with-her-own-siblings-150212.htm

 

A baby born in Hong Kong was pregnant with her own siblings at the time of her birth, according to a new report of the infant's case.

   
The baby's condition, known as fetus-in-fetu, is incredibly rare, occurring in only about 1 in every 500,000 births. It's not clear exactly why it happens.

"Weird things happen early, early in the pregnancy that we just don't understand," said Dr. Draion Burch, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Pittsburgh, who goes by Dr. Drai. "This is one of those medical mysteries."

 

The World Health Organization considers a tiny fetus found within an infant to be a kind of teratoma, or tumor, rather than a normally developing fetus. 

 

But the doctors who treated the baby girl wrote that rather than a teratoma, the tiny fetuses may instead be the remains of sibling twins that were absorbed during the pregnancy.

The newborn baby was referred to Dr. Yu Kai-man, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong, because the baby was suspected to have a tumor, according to the case report. The mother's prenatal ultrasound had revealed an unusual mass within the infant, but it was unclear to the doctors exactly what the mass was. During surgery, which was done when the girl was about 3 weeks old, the surgeons discovered two fetuses between her liver and her kidney.

 

One fetus weighed 0.3 ounces (9.3 grams) and the other 0.5 ounces (14.2 grams) — corresponding to about 8 and 10 weeks' gestation, the case report said.

Each of the babies had an umbilical cord that linked to a placenta-like mass in the girl's belly.

 

The baby girl was obviously too young to have conceived the fetuses herself. Instead, it's likely that the girl was once one of triplets, the researchers said. Then, for some mysterious reason, the two smaller fetuses were absorbed into the body of the remaining child.

 

The fetuses would likely have still been alive and growing when they were absorbed into the surviving baby's body. Once there, however, their development couldn't proceed normally, Burch said.

 

"They need placental flow and all that other stuff to really grow," Burch told Live Science.

 

Fetus-in-fetu may, in fact, be similar to a surprisingly common phenomenon: vanishing twin syndrome, Burch said. In many twin pregnancies, one of the twins is completely absorbed and "vanishes" into the body of the other.

 

"When you do a delivery and you see an extra placenta and a cord, you say, 'Oh, it must have been a twin,'" Burch said.

 

Fetus-in-fetu has been reported in about 200 cases in the medical literature. In 2006, doctors in Pakistan removed two fetuses from a 2-month-old girl named Nazia, according to NBC News. And in 2011, an 18-year-old boy had his retained twin removed in a major surgery, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

 

In rare instances, fetuses that die in utero can become calcified and turn into stone. In August 2014, doctors in India removed a lithopedion, or stone baby, that a 60-year-old woman had carried in her body for 36 years. She went to the doctor complaining of abdominal pain and a lump in her lower belly.

[rocket]

My youngest living daughter had a twin that was absorbed into her body. She had to have it removed when she was 8 yrs. old. At the time they said it was a hairy tumor and defined that as a twin that was absorbed in the early stages of gestation. It was close to the lung but not attached to any organ.

[hatcheckgirl]

A friend's daughter also had this.  It was only discovered when the 9 yr old girl hat been hit by a car, and was in hospital doing tests to check for internal injury.  I was there supporting the mother when the ultrasound tests were being conducted, when the medical staff gasped and murmured as they discovered the mass of human tissue in her abdomen.  It had been pushing all her other organs up into the upper body, so the staff couldn't find her organs in their regular space and were puzzled.  It was possibly fortuitous that they had found it at this stage before it caused much damage.  Our little sister recovered both from the accident and from the op.

[LeslieDean]

My last son was a twin.  I was having frequent ultrasounds at the time because the hospital where I worked just got a brand new US equipment and they were wanting to try it out.  Charles Ware, the department head asked me ass I walked by taking a lab speicman to drop off if I would like to be his guinea pig.  I said okay and he told me to drink alot of water and come back on my lunch break.  I did.  While he was using the probe across my abdomen he said "Did't you just have a baby?"  Yes, I replied, having just returned from my leave of absence for maternity.  Well, you might want to make another appointment with your OB doctor because you are going to be having another!  What?!?!  Then he tells me it is twins!  About four months along they tell me that one of the fetuses has quit developing so as to prepare me for what lay ahead.  Mr. Ware actually said that they beleive twin births are much mor

[LeslieDean]

internet went down....

twin births are much more common but never had the technology to know it before now (35 years ago).  I developed preeclampsia and was extremely sick.  The cure is delivering the baby.   They said that the baby would be absorbed back into my system--it wasn't--I ended up having to go to surgery the next day because my uterus would  not  clamp down (because of the remaining parts of the fetus) and I was bleeding to death.  They gave me a drug--Pitocin--which is suppose to cause women in labor to have harder and stronger contractions when they have subsided, but it never worked.  The surgery revealed a "collection of fetal parts bigger than a basketball" which was causing the problem.  The doctor actually said that the medical community (at that time--don't know if it is different now) felt like these multiple births were actually "natures way of ridding the body of a fetus that was not developing right".  He said to think of it as having two babies but in order for one to thrive the other must be "pruned".  He actually used a gardening illustration to explain it.  Get rid of the "sick" budding flower by pruning where the other healty flower can survive.  I have not thought about this for a long time. I have wondered though if I will be reunited with that baby in Paradise...

[Luezette]

I've had two miscarriages in the past, and I wonder too at times if I'll be united with both of my children in paradise. The thought actually makes me happy.

There was a magazine article on that subject concerning the resurrection. I forgot the year and date but nevertheless the slave wasn't definite on the subject. Oh well, we'll have to wait and see.

One thing is clear though at least in my mind. Since both my children were hardly viable enough to survive outside the uterus, this means that if Jehovah makes that decision to make it happen, then I would have to be pregnant with them again...one at a time. Wow! I mean, I wouldn't mind but WOW! I'm not married! Wow! Lol.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Luezette

[Luezette]

I found it concerning whether Jehovah will resurrect children who were lost in miscarriages or stillborn. And like I said, the slave isn't or wasn't definite. Here it is...

Watchtower, 4/15/2009 p. 12-13

Watchtower, 8/15/2009 p. 23

Edited February 15, 2015 by Luezette

[LeslieDean]

Why would you think ypu would have to be pregnant again if the baby was not viable outside the uterus?  Jehovah could give you a happy healthy baby to raise if that is what He has in store!  Now as far as a husband....it seems logical that Jehovah would want babies to have two parents since that was his original purpose!

[Luezette]

I know you're right Leslie, it was just what I thought that's all. I still feel so sorrowful over my two children I lost. In the new world we won't remember any sorrow.

As far as having a baby, actually I want a dozen (does that remind you of someone? Starts with a J, lol). But unlike J, I want at least 6 boys, 6 girls...even.

Oh we can dream can't we? Except for the new world for that's not a mere dream, it's a true reality!

[Gary Slocum]

Human imperfection is sometimes just too weird to think about!

[LeslieDean]

I know you're right Leslie, it was just what I thought that's all. I still feel so sorrowful over my two children I lost. In the new world we won't remember any sorrow.

As far as having a baby, actually I want a dozen (does that remind you of someone? Starts with a J, lol). But unlike J, I want at least 6 boys, 6 girls...even.

Oh we can dream can't we? Except for the new world for that's not a mere dream, it's a true reality!

 

I would love to have another baby and be forearmed with the knowledge of how to raise one!  I did not care for being pregnant.  I know many women loved the feeling of being pregnant and the baby moving.  I always thought it felt like a huge charlie horse when a foot or elbow got under my ribs.  I think nothing would be nicer than just having a baby handed to me!